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I agree with Putt Putt, this was one of the failures of PAG. Think of all the stupid questions we are asked, the questions about being near large trucks, highway safety, poor inaccurate reviews etc etc MB needs to solve the dealer problem, but if they don't overcome the American perception of small cars, Fiat will outsell it, even though I think its inferior.

yeah, i was asked if mine was electric a few weeks ago, it has a SOLO performance exhaust on it, very loud, i dropped to neutral and revved it, i asked "do you hear that?" the guy said yes, but demanded to know if it was electric! we were at a traffic light. when it turned green, i left him in the dust. i don't have the time for ignorant people anymore, especially while filling up at the gas station!

what's even funnier, they were tearing up pavement at work last saturday, i parked in a loading bay, next to the maintenance guy's dodge pick-up with a 5.7 liter hemi, i was going home, i started up my smart and he popped out of the building 5 seconds later, wondering if his pick-up was running (he has remote start), i smiled and said "no, it's just little old me!" he actually thought my smart was his dodge 5.7 liter hemi! i wish i had a camera for that one!

There is a real problem with dealer location. In the greater Torrance ca (Southbay) area. I see many Smarts driving in the Southbay but one would have to drive the LA freeways to Beverly Hills to get service. If you are expanding dealers, Please let us know if any are in our area. Why not train Mercedes dealers to pick up the slack. It just seems like a GOOD INVESTMENT AND GOOD BUSINESS.

Time will tell whether the FIAT is 'inferior' (LOL). They are different to be sure. Clearly the FIAT has more utility being able to carry 4 in a pinch, with the ability to fold the seats and add extra cargo space. It has 100 HP. Some us us will be fortunate to be able to have BOTH cars. I have wanted a 500 Abarth for as long as they have been available and got to ride in one while working in France -- it was a hoot at just 135 HP. The US version is slated for 170 HP (same tune as the Alpha Romeo Mito) which should be loads of fun. Frankly the more small cars sold in America (Spark, 500, Mazda 2 etc.) the better it will be for smart and the more the general populace will perceive the fortwo as a real car. No need to badmouth the competition -- just SELL what you got (that's one thing that has ALWAYS been mission from the smart equation)!

Walter Johnson said:

I agree with Putt Putt, this was one of the failures of PAG. Think of all the stupid questions we are asked, the questions about being near large trucks, highway safety, poor inaccurate reviews etc etc MB needs to solve the dealer problem, but if they don't overcome the American perception of small cars, Fiat will outsell it, even though I think its inferior.

MB is willing to train 33% more techs and open 33% more dealerships. for my service, i bypass the 2 local dealers, and drive to the next state, wisconsin, to a now fiat dealer, for my service. they do anything not requiring a smart computer, they are smart technicians.

this is totally wrong, MBUSA should make all their dealerships smart compatible. they must have poop for brains to segregate smarts from regular MB products. their sales would skyrocket if they had more dealers, who buys a car when they have to drive 600 miles for service?!?!?!? now i drive 100+ miles to milwaukee to get basic service, don't care for the chicago/lake bluff alternatives.

The smart community: Owners, smartCenters and DVI/smart have a huge hill to climb with the American public. Americans literally have to be educated on the smart. Even our own MB and smart dealers. American auto mechanics, the other car dealers all need to learn that the smart is a specialized vehicle for a practical purpose, just like a SUV, a Pickup Truck etc. We have so many choices of cars, but the vast majority are copying each other. As much as the word freedom gets tossed around, there has been no freedom to choose a different mode of transportation until the smart. It's quite a 'paradigm shift' for the American public to go from 'wow, I can throw 10 pounds of junk from my bag of 20 pounds of junk into my Sport Utility Vehicle'. To 'why do I need to spend all this money on gas to lug junk around, when I just go back and forth to work?'

smart is in a class of its own, a micro car. Not a sub compact or a four seat car. Fiat's and iQs are trying to follow the smarts coat tails by adding what the existing Detroit based culture think Americans should buy. Our needs are aren't always mixed in with the they want to sell.

There will be a four seat 'smart' to cater to that people that have the need for more passengers. Sadly, that car will not be a smart forTwo, because it isn't the original concept of the smart. A Micro Compact Car.

The public needs to learn the same lesson our worldwide smart friends learned back in 1998. The US is 10 years behind and will have to claw our way. It's ok to keep your SUV or Truck for a run to Home Depot. Just park it In the garage and use your new smart to move around town.

It's going to be hard work to school the public, and a smart just isn't for everyone. I do think after we 'open more minds', and pour in what the smart is about we will slowly see fruit. In the future, we will be looking at a poor fellow pumping gas into a SUV and say 'You could never get me in one of those things...again'.

I didn't mean the -500 was inferior from a design, reliability, or service standpoint. I drove an automatic one last week, liked it, but the sticker said it got 34 MPG highway. I drive a smart because its its the most efficient gas powered car, and, when I bought it I thought it was built and backed by MB. Repeating what I said before, a smart is the ultimate in efficiency, but American prejudice wants bigger, a back seat, not something that although it makes sense can't contend with a 40' semi. Mb knows better than me whether this concept can be sold to Americans.